Letter 70 - Happy Mother's Day and More

Dear family and friends, 

Happy belated Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms out there including my mom, my stepmom, and my daughters! The highlight of the week was talking to our children as they called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day! I got phone calls for three days and they all counted for Mother's Day in my opinion! I got two on Saturday night USA time (which was Sunday morning in Thailand), two on Sunday morning USA time (which was Sunday night in Thailand), and Sunday night USA time (which was Monday morning in Thailand! I am all about stretching out the celebration, so it was great for me! 

And Happy Birthday to Rikki! We got to talk to her on Friday (this) morning (it was still Thursday night and her birthday)! 

This week was supposed to be a quiet week with more time in the office and a couple of house inspections, but we ended up with three more patriarchal blessings for some members from India who were in Bangkok attending the temple. And so far we have 6 more blessings scheduled for next week and several house inspections next week too! But I am getting ahead of myself!

On to the pictures!

But first, we love you and miss you and thank you for your love, support, and prayers!

Love, 

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on!)

Saturday morning, I took a trip to Chatuchak Weekend Market with the Calls. I wanted to go to start scouting out souvenirs to take back to the USA for our grandchildren. It was hot and I don't like to shop, so we got smoothies and then I headed home! Haha! But I got some good ideas! 

My latest favorite smoothie is passion fruit!!! I have enjoyed mango and coconut too! But I really love passion fruit right now! 

A little shrine in the middle of the market. 

On my way back home from the market, I ran into these lovely sisters from India. Elder Brady had given them all blessings the past week. This was there last day in Bangkok. 

Saturday afternoon, we went out for an early Mother's Day dinner to Pizza Company. While we were there, our mission daughter, Malea, messenger video called us! We talked with her for our whole dinner. No one else was in the restaurant, so we did not feel bad chatting and laughing with her! 

We miss Sister Taylor! 

This has nothing to do with the mission, but I woke up Sunday morning to this Facebook Memory! This is me and my little sister, Shayne, pretending to be asleep! Hahahaha! 

Happy Mother's day to me! Here we are at church with Sister Bairi who we gave a blessing to last week. She is currently in the MTC here in Thailand is soon heading out on her mission. She is from India and will be serving in India. 

A sweet hug! 

Monday we met Elder JamesVincent. He is currently in the MTC, from India and leaving soon to serve a mission in India. He received his blessing from Elder Brady. We typed it up and delivered it to him Monday evening in the MTC. It happened to be dinner time and we got to join the missionaries for a delicious dinner! There was beef stew! And it was good! We love Thai food, but sometimes it is fun to get some comfort food from home.

Tuesday, we had appointments at the hospital - doctor's office. No pictures of the actual appointment, but I like this fruit and flower display in the lobby!

Tuesday afternoon, we headed to see Elders Htoo and Guanuna in Ramkhamhaeng. We did an inspection of their apartment (they did a good job), and then we headed to Sandy's for some pizza! 

The pizza was delicious as always!

Sandy's husband passed away a couple of months ago (just after we met them both). We have tried to go to her pizza place once a month when we are in the area. We invited her to come to church and told her we would meet her and attend with her in a couple of weeks. She said she would join us. She is lonely and it would be good for her to meet some friends and to feel God's love for her. 

Wednesday, morning we had two patriarchal blessings for this lovely husband and wife (Karunakaran and Mary) from India. We found out the night before that they were in Bangkok and their blessings had been approved. Fortunately, we had open time on out calendar for two days. 

This is them with their son, Aakash. They are attending the temple for the first time and their family was scheduled for a temple sealing right after this blessing. 

(Aakash would be receiving his blessing the next day). 

This is a throwback to May 2nd, when Elder Brady gave a blessing to Elder Aadarsh Karunakaran. He is Mary and Karunakaran's son and is in the MTC. He was able to be with his family in the temple Wednesday evening to be sealed to his family. We are so happy for them!

Wednesday evening, we took a walk for a little exercise and stopped at 7-11 on our way home. I thought this shelf stable product looked interesting: "Chicken Floss Doughnut with Salad Dressing!" Hmmmmm.

And I was also intrigued with "Butter Toast!" This bread is all buttered and ready to be toasted! 

I did not try either product! 

Thursday morning, Aakash received his blessing. Mary and I matched in our green and white outfits! 

Thursday evening we went to the temple. This was our view when we came out of the temple. That building is were we live and work in the office! It is such a beautiful place. 

Friday morning we hopped on the train to go to Samut Prakan for a house inspection! 

The view from the Sister's condo is so lovely!

Sister Polsan! I love this little cutout that Sister made with a picture of herself and Jesus :)!

Sisters Furlan and Polsan did a wonderful job cleaning their condo!

Back on the train on our way to lunch at Pepper Lunch! Yay!

I love this view from the skywalk from the train to the mall! You can see the Klong and back in the distance some Thai Temples! 

And that concludes our week! It is Friday afternoon in Thailand and we are back in the office finishing up a few tasks. We will be heading out soon to meet up with Jessica and Kaitlyn for pizza and then back to our place for movie night! And tomorrow we will head down to Rayong! We have not been to our sweet little branch for 9 weeks!! But I will have to include all of that in next week's blog!

So stay tuned! 

Haha! 

Thanks for reading! 

We love you! 

Letter 69 - Forty-two and Eighteen

Dear loved ones, 

Another week in Thailand has flown by. We are less than seven months away from the end of our mission. I am already sad about that! We are in the middle of mango season and near the end of the hot season. The rainy season is on the way and we have already had a thunderstorm or two.

It was a busy week filled with celebrating 42 years of marriage (woohoo), working in the office, and giving patriarchal blessings! We have met some wonderful people in India over the past 8 days, as John has given 18 blessings to members who have come to Thailand to go to the temple and receive their blessings. 

The pictures tell the story, so let's get to it! 

But first, as always, we love you, miss you, and thank you for your love, support, and prayers!

Love, 

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, John and Shelly, and so on)

Throw back to the RMRT seminar! Here we are stepping off the dance floor! It was a good time!

Last Saturday, John and I got to meet with Sister Bairi. She is in the MTC here in Thailand and recieved her Patriarchal blessing. She was so excited to get her blessing. Please notice the sweater I am wearing! Our apartment AC was broken and it would not go above 20C or 68F! I was freezing, especially coming in from 100 degree heat outside! We offered Sister Bairi an apology and a sweater! 

This is Elder Karunakaran, also from the MTC. Both of these missionaries are from India. We had 2 blessings on Friday and these 2 on Saturday (all from India). He had a fun personality and was so happy to get his blessing too! 

After the blessings, we headed downstairs for the end of the RMRT seminar. We grabbed a boxed lunch and said goodbye to some of our new friends. The sisters were from Vietnam and the young man, was from Hong Kong.

Time for one more selfie! 

On Sunday, I could not resist taking a picture of the children's choir singing in Stake Conference. They were so darling! The two girls in the front middle are the grandchildren of our good friend Patti who is from our home ward back in Oregon, but now lives in Thailand!

Sunday afternoon blessings - Elder Rama from India - in the MTC here on the 3rd floor! Such a fine young man!

And Elder Mourougane - from India in the MTC! So happy to get his blessing too. Notice I still have the sweater on!! 

Elder Brady on the elevator! On our way down to the office on the 2nd floor to type up the blessings. 

Sunday night zoom fireside! Hello Sister Zabala and Sister Jasper! 

Elder Guanuna gives his farewell devotional. We have so many missionaries leaving between now and July 16th that we will have firesides every Sunday evening at 9pm between now and then! 

Monday - May the 4th be with you! We are celebrating our anniversary a day early, because we have a busy day on our actual anniversary! And a busy days that follow! We decided to go to the movies and eat a giant bucket of popcorn! Yummmmmm! 

We spent a few extra Baht on the "love seat!" We got cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn. We watched "The Hail Mary Project." It was a good clean movie! Loved it! 

Happy actual anniversary! 42 years! The Seniors were in charge of zone conference breakfast. The zone leaders requested bagels and English muffins again with yogurt and granola. It was a fairly low stress meal, except for the part when our order did not show up Monday morning (even though I got an email that said it was delivered and my credit card got charged), so after the movie Monday night, we went to the grocery store and purchased the rest of what we needed for the breakfast! 

Throw back to our wedding reception! We were married on May 5, 1984 before Cinco De Mayo was even a thing! We had our reception the following weekend! I loved my Lady Diana style wedding dress with the puffy sleaves!!! It's so hard to believe that 42 years have gone by! 

Throw back to the RMRT Seminar - bus ride to the dinner cruise! 

Throw back to the RMRT Seminar - this was the group in the workshop I was leading. 

Overcoming Obstacles Joyfully (Bill Porter's story). I have been telling that story for nearly 30 years now! How can you not love Bill's story! 

Throwback to the RMRT seminar - here we are meeting the RMs as they arrive!

Introducing our selves! I look crazy!

Meeting Elder Buckner and wife and daughter.

Fun times! 

Back to Tuesday - Bangkok Zone group picture at the end of the Zone Conference.

Our Rayong Sisters! Sister Jasper and Sister Zabala and the Calls and Bradys!

A few from the 5th floor! 

Tuesday afternoon blessings! Elder Brady gave 3 blessings to this sweet family from India. President and Sister Veeraraj and their son Ramesh. President Veeraraj is the Branch President of his branch in India and he came with several branch members to serve and worship in the temple for the week. 12 of his branch members requested blessings. Normally, Elder Brady does 1 or maybe 2 blessings in a day. In order to make this work, he would have to do 3 per day. At first we did not think it could be done (especially after getting out of the hospital not so long ago), but with a lot of prayer and faith and the realization that it would be so hard to turn anyone away, Elder Brady decided to go ahead and offer blessings to them all. They were so happy. 

Throw back to some goals we set back when we first got married. We drew a picture of a road that leads to the sunset of our lives. Because the drawing is a little fuzzy, I will list our goals as a married couple: 

1 - Finish Old Testament (we did!)

2 - Write a Book (I wrote "Ten Things I Learned from Bill Porter!)

3 - Get out of debt (we did!)

4 - Retire (we did!)

5 - Go on a mission (WE ARE!)

We wrote this back in the 1980s, I came across it before we left for our mission and brought a copy of it with us! And I just came across it again in our apartment. I thought it was a timely addition to the blog.

Wednesday Blessings - Husband and wife, Brother Gnanamuthu and Sister Natesan, received their blessings. Their son Winston Churchill joined us for the occasion. 

Sister Christy received her blessing on Wednesday also with so much joy and excitement! 

She was a lot of fun and looked much younger than her years! She also wanted to take some pictures with her camera! And she invited us to come visit in India! 

Wednesday evening, we went to the MTC to drop off the patriarchal blessings and we happened to show up at dinner time. We got invited to join them for a delicious meal of Indian food! 

It was our lucky evening! 

Thursday we met with the Powell family. This is Brother and Sister Powell and their son Brady! 

We loved that he had the same name as us! They shared their stories of how they came to know and love Jesus Christ. Brady is only 11, but will be turning 12 soon. 

He was happy to get a blessing with his parents. 

This is Lisa who lives in India and was with this branch of members serving in the temple! 

Christy wanted a picture receiving her printed copy of the blessing! 

Sister Margret Powell wanted a picture as well! 

Friday, we met with another Powell family. Brother Powell (next to Elder Brady) had already received his patriarchal blessing when he served as a missionary 20 years ago. His wife and daughters were able to receive theirs on this occasion. Side note, Brother Powell is brothers with the other Brother Powell who received a blessing the day before. 

This is Ishla Powell and her daughters Belina and Belita. Ishla serves as the Relief Society President. She was instrumental in putting together this temple trip and arranging for hundreds of names to go to the temple. She shared her conversion story and how she came to know Jesus Christ and how He is truly her friend and Savior. We ended up spending a long time with this family getting to know them and hearing their stories. The girls even sang for us. They have beautiful voices. It was a special experience, one we will always remember. 

Friday afternoon, I got an email from a missionary momma wanting to know what kind of shoes she should send with her son. I asked our office Elders if I could take pictures of their shoes to send to the momma, and they said sure! I love the wear and tear I see on their shoes - that shows the miles walked to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To me those shoes are beautiful! 

I love this verse found in Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, 

that publisheth peace; 

that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; 

that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

I am a day late getting the blog out, but by the end of Friday, I was done! 

So it is Saturday afternoon now!

If you made it this far and are a mother:

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow! 

This concludes this weeks blog!

Thanks for reading!

Bye!